Re: 5S and 5C impressive for different reasons
Actually this whole story about Apple and their fingerprint sensor is full of FUD, hyperbole and blatant theft from Samsung. The truth is Samsung had applied for using this very same Authentec sensor in the Galaxy S3. Because Samsung was already using Authentec sensors in notebooks since 2005 and had even planned to put them in it's first Origami UMPC ("Ultra Mobile PC" 2007 tablet PC) well before iPad even. Their Patent Application was in 2011, a year before Apple's. It was for one in the Home Button and the proof was just discovered this year. When a coded image was found in the Galaxy S3's firmware. People want to deny this... because they also put several other locations in this patent.
http://www.biometricupdate.com/201305/rumors-point-to-an-embedded-fingerprint-sensor-for-galaxy-devices
But our Appleholic USPTO ignored it and it didn't get approved till after the image was discovered and made public, just this year. Meanwhile, Samsung since they had been running this very same sensor technology in Notebooks was having the same problems Apple is having now.... chip yields. They had also found out how weak and hackable the security in this technology was. So it didn't make it into Galaxy S3.
Apple in the meantime, had been trying to buy Authentec out from under Samsung. After they had found out from a patent search that Samsung was going to possibly use Authentec's sensor in the Galaxy S3, while discovering their Patent. Which is why they only applied for a patent for a hand print scan under the screen a year after Samsung's application. They had no sensor for one in the Home Button, until just recently modified to fix this failure. So Apple actually ended up way over paying for Authentec's now failed technology, hacked by fake prints.
Yet Apple had gone after the very same company that their biggest competitor had been using for then 7yrs. Was this anti-competitive? What they got though.... was a bio-metric technology doomed to fail. Because it only scans the surface layer. Unlike Validity's technology that uses Deep Tissue scanning to prevent the HACK that your 5s is susceptible to. Meanwhile Samsung scrambled to find a replacement sensor for GS4 and to fix that problem, that Apple apparently couldn't.
After Apple bought Authentec out from under them and had Authentec discontinue support for former customers like Samsung, only then did they file for a patent that got approved immediately.... naturally by a now totally consumed Appleholic USPTO like you and the Register's writer here. Anti-competitive? You better believe it!
http://www.biometricupdate.com/201305/uspto-grants-samsung-patent-for-embedded-fingerprint-sensor
So how do you think Samsung found out about Authentec's failure on small devices? Easy.... they are partners with Motorola. Who had an Authentec sensor in the Atrix two years ago. This is why Moto was dissing and laughing at Apple. Because they already knew Authentec's fingerprint sensor technology was doomed to be hacked even by kids on YouTube videos!!! lol....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJpu9PP3U1w
But every other phone maker now has opted for Validity's far superior technology and algorithms. While Authentec had been sitting on technology that had already been set up to fail back in 2002. When a hacker had published a how to hack their fingerprint sensor way back then. Can Apple somehow save Authentec? Well hey'll try for sure, but meanwhile you have an iPhone 5s that can be hacked by novices and children! ...Enjoy It while it lasts, but don't use it to buy stuff for sure!!!
http://www.validityinc.com/
So both Motorola and it's fellow Android partner... Samsung are snickering and laughing about Apple's misfortune in paying so much for technology doomed to fail! :DDD
btw... Samsung has just broke their own smartphone sales record this last Quarter, by selling between 85 and 89 Million Smartphones in September Quarter. Putting them on target to sell well over 300 Million Smarterphones this year! ;-P .....and that compared to Apple only headed for a measly by comparison 150 million iPhone w/ sensors conned by kids, monkeys, cats and dogs prints!